密穗黄堇 mi sui huang jin

Herbs, perennial, 15-65 cm tall, glabrous or papillose-scabrid on margins and veins abaxially; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots oblong, 10-50 mm including indistinct stalk, 1.5-3(-5) mm in diam., rarely branched. Stems 1-4, suberect, ascending or straggling in bushes, slender, branched, with 2-4 leaves in upper 2/3. Radical leaves 1-5; petiole 5-10(-30) cm, slender, weak; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, broadly ovate-triangular, 3-10(-20) × 2-10(-17) cm, bi- to triternate to bi-(tri-)pinnate; ultimate segments elliptic to lanceolate, 1-2 × (0.2-)0.4-1 cm, acute or obtuse, often mucronate. Cauline leaves: lower petiole to 3 cm, upper leaves shortly stalked or sessile; blade broadly ovate to deltoid, 3-10 × 3-7 cm, like radical leaves but more robust. Racemes 3-5 cm, elongating in fruit to 5-10 cm, densely 12-25(-35)-flowered, simple or with a basal branch; bracts 5-9 mm, deeply pectinately to flabellately cut into narrow acuminate lobes or teeth; lower bracts often again divided, upper ones sometimes entire, often tinged purplish. Pedicel 3-5(-10) mm, recurved in fruit. Sepals white, 0.4-1(-2) × 1-1.5 mm, fimbriate-dentate. Corolla yellow, veins distinct, tip of inner petals orange-yellow; upper petal rhombic-acute, 17-21 mm, crest 1-1.5 mm, not or shortly decurrent on spur; spur cylindric or slightly attenuate, 8-13 mm, narrow, apex slightly bent downward; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal broadly obovate (broadest in distal 1/2), 7-9 mm, acute to obtuse, conspicuously undulate, ± dentate; crest short; inner petals 6-8 mm. Stigma with marginal papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral broad, diffuse; geminate papillae sublateral (clearly submarginal) and on well-developed rounded basal lobes. Capsule obovoid, 5-9 × 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, 3-6-seeded; style 2.5-3 mm. Seeds faintly colliculate, 1.2-1.4 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

● Shrubs in alpine meadows, sometimes in scree, common; 3200-4400 m. SW Sichuan (N to Litang and Yajiang), E Xizang, NW Yunnan.